


I Shake My Crystal Ball At Thee!

by daisyisawriter91



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Chuck Shurley is So Done, Humor, M/M, Oracle Chuck Shurley, Poor Sam, Prince Sam Winchester, Sam is Confused, Sass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-24 05:22:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13206858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisyisawriter91/pseuds/daisyisawriter91
Summary: Sam is a prince. In his kingdom, it is customary to go to an oracle to find one's true love. Sam had expected a mysterious practitioner of the Arts, not Chuck. Not strange-talking, cluttered home-owning, grumbly Chuck. But that's what he got.





	I Shake My Crystal Ball At Thee!

Prince Samuel felt the horse’s muscles work beneath him as the pair rode towards their destination. This was a momentous day. It was Samuel’s 22nd birthday, which meant it was the birthday he would learn who his true love was destined to be.   
It was a tradition in his kingdom to search out an oracle, a seer, who would reveal the identity of a person’s true love on a person’s 22nd birthday. And Samuel was ready to meet his.   
Samuel’s horse crested the hill and Samuel looked down to see a hut, barely big enough for one person. This was where his brother had gone, four years previously. The oracle, named Charles, was reportedly the best in the land.   
Samuel urged his horse forward and rode down to the hut. Up close, Samuel could see that it was lovingly maintained, if a bit dated in certain places. There was a small garden outside, with a few vegetables growing. Samuel could see a cow wandering in the distance, and sincerely hoped that the cow was Charles’s.   
Samuel slid off his horse, tying the steed to a nearby tree. He walked forward and rapped three times on the door. A muffled, tired, voice came from inside. “It’s open. If you’re a robber, I have a magic staff and I know how to use it.” Samuel frowned at the voice, not sure what he was expecting. He opened the door and stepped inside, ducking through the squat entryway.   
The inside of the hut was cacophony. Drying herbs and rabbits hung from the ceiling over a table filled with vials of mysterious essences. Shelves lined the walls, filled to the brim with books he assumed were filled with spells and jars Samuel didn’t look too closely at. In the center of this chaos was a man, presumably Charles. Charles was surprisingly short, wearing a simple tunic and cloak, with curling hair and a slightly premature graying to his beard. Charles looked up at Samuel from a steaming pot of…something and frowned, looking him up and down. “Off with the shoes, tree man. Do you know how many times I’ve had to clean up mud from adventurers searching for their true love? Hundreds. Shoes. Off.” Charles scolded, stirring the substance in the pot. Samuel rushed to take off his boots and set them beside a pair that were Charles’s. “Let me guess. You’re here for the true love test, yeah?”   
“I’ve traveled many miles-” Samuel began, but Charles cut him off.  
“Yeah, yeah. Save it. I’ve heard that so many times, I’ve practically got it memorized. Sit down, I’ll be with you in a minute.” Charles grumbled. Samuel found a chair at the table and sat down, not quite comfortable. Charles held out the pot in Samuel’s direction. “Want some?” Samuel eyed it, warily.  
“What will it do to me?” He countered. Charles rolled his eyes.  
“It’s stew. It’ll fill you up, so that you don’t have to eat for a few hours. Gods, you people always assume the worse. I once had a guy come in and think I was practicing the dark arts with my rabbits hanging up. Like, no, buddy, oracle’s gotta eat.” Charles ranted, more to himself. Samuel couldn’t understand the way Charles spoke. It was unlike any dialect he’d ever heard. “I know what you’re thinking. I’m an oracle, I found a new form of our language in the future and started using it. Much easier.” Samuel’s eyes widened. “And, no, I didn’t read your mind. That’s an entirely different sect of magic. Like I said, I’ve been through this hundreds of times. So much so, I’m starting to predict everything that’ll happen without even using magic. You people really need to get more unpredictable.” Charles seemed to have a penchant for ranting. He set the stew to the side and waved his hand at it, working some sort of magic on it. Charles walked around to the other side of the table and sat, looking Samuel directly in the eye. “I’m guessing you already know who I am.”  
“You’re the oracle, Charles.” Samuel answered, dumbfounded by this strange man. Though his brother hadn’t been allowed to go into detail about the oracle, he’d mentioned that the oracle was odd. Samuel now realized that was an understatement. Charles grimaced at Samuel’s words.  
“I go by ‘Chuck’. Much less pretentious. And you are?” Charles-Chuck, Samuel corrected himself-asked.   
“Don’t you already know?” Chuck seemed taken aback by Samuel’s question.   
“Geez, man, if I divined every single thing about my life, there’d be no mystery in it at all! And what’s the fun in that? You gotta walk a line when you do what I do.” Chuck explained. Samuel weighed this, and realized Chuck was probably right. He could see how learning everything about one’s future could be maddening. “Now. What’s your name?”  
“I am Prince Samuel.” Samuel introduced himself. Chuck gave a ghost of a smile.  
“Oh, right. Dean said I’d be getting a visit from you in a few years.”   
“You remember Dean? I would’ve thought you had seen so many people you’d forget him.”   
“If his true love hadn’t been my nephew, I would’ve forgotten him.” Chuck admitted. “Well, Sam,” Samuel jolted at this new nickname. “Ready to find your special someone?” Chuck asked, obviously already knowing the answer. Samuel swallowed a lump of nerves in his throat and nodded.   
“Do…do you need your crystal ball?” Samuel asked, feeling stupid as he asked it. Chuck looked at him in confusion, before noticing the crystal ball on the table.  
“Oh, that? Just decoration. It’s useless. Lump of polished rock, it’s not even real crystal. Sometimes I like to see what travelers think I am. It’s all in good fun.” Samuel’s cheeks burned at Chuck’s explanation. “Do you have anything personal on you? Something irreplaceable?” At seeing Sam’s panicked face, Chuck rushed to add on: “I’m not going to take it! I just need to hold it for a few minutes! For things like this, I need to use an object a person is attached to for my divining to work properly. It’s sort of a tether, it keeps me from seeing things that aren’t relevant to my purpose. I don’t need to know how a random blacksmith’s great-great-great grandson is going to die, and an object with emotional attachment keeps me on track.” Chuck explained. Samuel released a breath he had no idea he was holding and handed over a ring. His mother’s wedding ring.   
Chuck took the ring and closed his eyes. Everything in the hut, including Samuel, was very silent as he went through this process. Chuck’s eye’s opened, flashing briefly purple, and he quickly handed the ring back to Samuel. “Well?” Samuel asked, impatiently. “Do you know?” Chuck looked quite rattled.  
“Yes, I know. But you…you shouldn’t go after this one.” Chuck said, quietly.   
“Why not? This person is my true love, I absolutely should go after them!” Sam protested. Chuck shook his head.  
“No, you really shouldn’t. This person…they’re not a very good person. I want you to leave, now.” Chuck stood from his chair.  
“Wait, what?”  
“You heard me. Get out.” Chuck said, not looking at Samuel. Samuel stood to his full height.  
“But you haven’t even told me who my true love is!”  
“And be glad I haven’t!” Chuck said, raising his voice for the first time in Samuel’s visit. Chuck picked up the fake crystal ball. “Go on! Out! Go! I shake my crystal ball at thee!” Chuck shouted, chasing Samuel out of the hut. For being much shorter than him and seemingly non-threatening, the oracle was intimidating.   
The door slammed behind Samuel, but that didn’t deter him. Samuel sat down right where he was, in front of the door. He had come all this way to learn the identity of his true love, and he wouldn’t leave until he learned it.   
It was nearly an hour later when the door opened again and Chuck looked disapprovingly down at Sam. “I thought I told you to leave.”  
“I came here to learn who my true love is. I’m a grown man,”  
“Debatable.” Samuel pointedly ignored this comment.  
“I can make my own decisions. It is not your say whether or not my true love is a good person or not. I must make that call for myself.” Chuck examined him for a second, frowning.   
“You’re really stubborn, you know that, right?” Chuck asked, sighing. Samuel cracked a smile.  
“I’ve been told.”   
“If I tell you, will you go away?”   
“I swear it.” Chuck nodded, satisfied with Samuel’s answer.  
“Fine. Your true love is supposed to be me.” Chuck said, a bit quickly. Sam blinked in surprise, looking down at Chuck. “I know. I’m so impressive, right?” Chuck had a bitter edge in his voice. “You said you’d go away.”  
“I will.” Samuel paused. “But only if you go with me.” Chuck was visibly confused. “You seem surprised. You’re supposed to be my true love, and, truthfully, I can see it. And, I did swear I’d go away, but I didn’t say under what circumstances or that I’d go away alone.” Chuck was silent for a long moment, before he gave a half-smile.  
“This is a stupid idea, but, what the hell?” 

 

Looking back on it, Sam (and it was Sam, now) was glad he was stubborn like that. Otherwise, Chuck probably would have never come with him. He wouldn’t normally approve of such methods, and, looking back, he was still appalled he did that. But he knew now that Chuck had wanted to go in the first place.   
It was years later, and Sam had determined that Chuck had been correct. He was Sam’s true love. That was proved every day when Sam woke up with Chuck in his arms.  
Sometimes, being stubborn pays off.


End file.
